Bella couldn’t help but smile as she sat out on the balcony of their room and watched the traffic go by. Austin was one of her favorite cities. Everyone around her was friendly and inviting. Ian was in the shower. She insisted on him taking a shower alone. He’d woken her up three times during the night. If she went into the shower with him, they would never leave the hotel.

Ian’s phone chimed beside her.

“Hey, Bella, can you read me the text? I’m waiting on something from Cole.”

When she turned to look inside the hotel room, she caught sight of Ian drying his body off. The man was sexy as hell. She reached for the phone and keyed in his password. She stared at the message for a few seconds and clicked the attachment.

This can’t be right. Why would he do this? she thought. She paged through the attachment. It got hard to read because of the tears forming in her eyes.

He walked up behind her and put a hand on her shoulder. But she didn’t want him to touch her. After what she’d seen, she never wanted to see the prick again.

Bella faced Ian, handed him his phone, and started packing.

“What did it say?” Ian’s brows furrowed in confusion. He glanced down at his phone.

Bella couldn’t stop the tears that streamed down her face. It had only been two weeks, but her heart was already in his hands, and he’d ripped it apart. When he looked up, his face was pale.

She didn’t give him time to speak. “How could you?” she screamed.

“This is not what it looks like.” Ian tried to touch her, and she flinched away. She saw the hurt in his eyes, but what he’d done was uncalled for and maybe unforgivable.

She stopped packing her bag and gave him her full attention. “You're saying you didn’t have someone dig into every part of my past?”

He ran a hand through his hair. “Bella, stop for a second and let me explain.”

“What is there to explain? I fell for you and trusted you with my heart. And what did you do? You betrayed that trust by having someone dig into my life. I’m an open book—you could have asked me anything. Instead, you hired someone. The only reason I can think of right now is that you think I helped Mr. Ainsworth.”

Ian clenched his hands at his sides. “Bella, I didn’t do this to find information out on you. I was trying to help you.”

Bella reached up and swiped the tears from her eyes. “I need time. If I stay in the same room with you a second longer, I will say something I’ll regret.”

“We can talk about it on our way back to San Antonio.”

There was no way she would get in his truck and sit next to him for an hour. She needed time to think, and she couldn’t think when he was near. She might forgive him, but at the moment, she was in no mood to forgive. He’d ruined something special. He’d turned one of the most magical nights of her life into something dirty. She felt not only betrayed but used as well.

“No, I’m taking a taxi back.”

“Bella, that’s stupid. I can drive you or take my truck. You aren’t safe in a taxi.”

She let out a bitter laugh. “Oh, but you're safe to be around.” She walked up and poked him in the chest. “You invaded my privacy.”

Bella turned on her heel and walked toward the door. Ian put his hand against the door.

“Bella, don’t go. You need to listen.”

“If you want to save any part of what we have, you will remove your hand.”

Ian removed his hand from the door as if it burned him. When she took one last look in his eyes, he looked almost as torn as she did.

When she pulled the door open, he asked, “Can we talk tomorrow?”

“I don’t know, Ian. Give me time.”

She walked out of the hotel room and grabbed the first taxi she could find to take her home. Bella curled up in the back of the taxi and cried the whole way back to San Antonio. She cried because she’d lost the man she had fallen for in a short time. She cried because she wished her mom was alive so she would have someone to talk to. She cried because she felt like she’d made the biggest mistake of her life.